So the Charlottesville City Farmers Market is one way to participate in this scene, but there are many other places to embrace this spirit all over town. Courtesy of the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Buy Fresh Buy Local guide, here is the directory to end all directories for the local food scene:
So, I returned from a long weekend away from my wife to find out that she’s been reading Skinny Bitch by Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman and has decided that she would like to start living the organic lifestyle. She will only eat organic food, cutting out dairy all-together, and is considering becoming a vegetarian.
I had an amazing morning this past Saturday at the Charlottesville City Market. There was something for everyone:
Vegetarians: from fresh young bamboo shoots to local strawberries and purple spring onions, the potential for a ridiculous vegetarian meal was easily within one’s reach
Jewelry: from conservative to on-the-edge, designed young and old were out strutting their stuff
Meats: there was some serious sausage grilling giving the market a nice smoky aroma
Politics: Obama 08′, Amnesty International, and a group petitioning against the proposed dam made sure you knew what their deal was
We are all up in arms about gas prices and no one has mentioned rising food prices in cville…lunch for 2 at a fast food place like Sticks was $20!? Wow! But, it was a great, filling lunch.
So I am officially ending my vacation, breaking the chains of my previous imprisonment, and embracing the food scene in full force. I am skinny, weak and oh so hungry. I was told by my superiors that Cville wasn’t ready for a trigger happy food critic…some of you think otherwise.
Let’s clear up some air over here. First a little background on myself so you don’t think I am completely full of the shizzle. I was born in this country to a family of European parents who absolutely love food. If there was one time in the day where we can break the Guinness Book of World Records record for loudest conversation, it was definitely at the dinner table. Eating is not just a necessity for me, it’s life. It is the conductor to my life’s symphony. My parents have spent the last 30 years in the food business with me at their side, so inevitably, I have a particularly strong connection with food.
It seems not all farms are treated fairly, and our local sweetheart, Polyface Farm, seems be getting the cold shoulder from the USDA. Joel Salatin mentions he would like to sell custom slaughtered meat, but can’t. The irony here is that the government is OK with us eating his meat in any way shape or form, as long as we don’t give him money for it. It must be processed at a USDA approved facility bla bla bla. Have any of you seen Fast Food Nation? Would you prefer one of our local boys cutting the meat or the heathens in the meat factories? I know regulations are there for a reason, but they don’t always bring out the best.
Exactly. So cVillains, who’s for Joel selling us his meat?
So I embarked on an odyssey last week (does that sound too serious?), to find out about cville’s vegetarian offerings. Given some of the comments on the posts related to this, let me clarify what that means. I was not looking for vegetarian ONLY restaurants, just places that, lets says you took a date to that happened to be vegetarian, he/she would be quite happy. So all of you hippies take a hike, this is not the post for you.
Dependable Zo.Ca.Lo…what do you have to offer to those meat weary folks? Apparently just one dish, an amazing dish I have never had before in my life. The lone vegetarian warrior on the entrees menu is the “Black Bean and Corn Relleno”. I really didn’t know what to expect, I just read the description: smoked tomato grits, smoked pico, cilantro buttermilk honey”, figured it was cool to eat and ordered. I should warn you, this isn’t some “I am on a diet so I am trying out vegetarian food” type of dish. This thing definitely has healthy quantities of butter and cream…perhaps French cuisine had an affair with a Mexican damsel from the south and many years later Mr. Frenchie comes back to town to find out he has a lost daughter…this is his little chalupita.
If you are looking for the vegetarian deal of the century, then Eppie’s on the downtown mall is the place to be. Their menu offering is pretty meat heavy except for the side’s section, which allows you the choice of a veggie only platter in 3 or 4 choice combos with a generous piece of corn bread.
I opted for mac n’ cheese, collard greens and coleslaw. For around 6 bucks I received an impressive amount of food that I couldn’t even finish. Everything on the plate was good quality. Not to say there isn’t any room for improvement like making the collard greens in a more modern manner or using a different cheese on the mac n’cheese, but the value per vegetable was really good. They had a wide variety of sides on the menu which I will definitely go back for. For a southern food lunch, it was light and left me happy…happy to know even with western fare this vegetarian craze can be satiated!
I also noted one of the kitchen staff came outside to offer a bowl of water for one of the customers that had their dog with them. I found that to be a terrific gesture. Talk about southern hospitality!
I know, a brewery? I would think the same thing…but I go where the wind takes me this week, and everyone seemed to finish the work day at South Street’s famous Tuesday evenings, full of cheap excellent beer and worthy grub. This review will be short and snappy.
I feared South Street would break my vegetarian streak of the week (and it was only Tuesday), but the words “portobello ravioli” called my name from the menu. I didn’t even bother reading the description assuming there was nothing in this meat related. Yes, I was right. The ravioli were giant round circles cooked perfectly and filled with sautéed portobello…they were dam good. The sauce was a crème based cheese sauce topped with parmesan cheese. This dish alone made the evening a success.
I couldn’t find anything else on the menu that appealed to my inner veggie except for the veggie optioned nachos. Did I miss something else on the menu worth noshing on?
There has been a lot of talk on cVillain related to the local/slow/organic food movement. Gobbler wrote a post on the economics behind sustaining a 100% organic diet, thanks to his wife’s new infatuation with the hit-book “Skinny Bitch”. Vanillavy submitted himself to days upon days of a 100% vegetarian diet and prepared a local vegetarian food guide.
